English
From Amir—
I’m not much of a cook and Zahra’s Paradise was certainly not written as a foodie’s safari. Still, it’s impossible to write about an Iranian family and not digress into Persian food, whether it is loubiya polo and mast-o-khiar, Mehdi’s favorite…or some other dish.
Persian food is glorious. No, our rice is not enriched with uranium. No, no, that yellow stuff isn’t yellow cake. It’s saffron.
For me, Persian food is perfumed with the memories of my grandmother’s house. The house is gone, and so is my grandmother, but there’s no escaping memory: the bounty that flowed through my grandmother’s house. She didn’t buy rice by the kilo, she bought it by the ton! As for fruit, our fruit did not come all packaged, sealed and stuck in plastic, with some sticky Chiquita-no-pickita label stamped on it. My grandmother would open the door, and the season would burst in. Cartons of pomegranates, oranges and tangerines, buckets of cherries, mulberries or grapes, an embarrassment of riches would just flood the house, compliments of some garden or another (hence the Iranian people’s love affair with fruit trees). And so you’d just gobble away, knowing that virtually everything you ate connected you not only to Iran’s bounty, but to the price of friendships struck by your grandfathers and their grandfathers. Despite appearances, there was nothing modern about that Iran–nothing modern about its politics and nothing modern about its families. Food, life, flowed into and out of my grandmother’s house, and her heart, seemed to connect everything to everyone.
And so I’ve probably sprinkled a little bit of my grandmother, and perhaps yours, on Zahra to give our story real flavor.
If you’d like to go from reading to eating, don’t miss the opportunity. With Iranians scattered all over the world, you don’t need to go to Iran to try Persian food. Call up an Iranian friend and demand “loobiya polo” and “mast o khiar”. Forget Caviar. Make sure you get the biggest share of the “tahdig”–that’s the crispy golden crust of rice at the bottom of the dish that’s the ultimate delicacy.
The essence of Persian food is all about the celebration of life, sharing and abundance, not exclusion and scarcity. So avoid restaurants. If you want to really taste Iran, call up an Iranian friend, and eat at their house.
Loobiya polo recipe
Mast o Khiar recipe
Persian Food Safari
Your masterpiece brings awarness to all those aknowleged forigners who still do not have a slight idea about iran and what has happend to us and to our generation. I live in italy and every single day should prove my country and my identity that’s why i do art to get rid of talking!
I feel such a reliefe when i read your anazing comic cuz i think your art you’re making such a progress to green movemnet and our iranian disturbed identity.
Hope to see u somewhere ,someday.
Thank you so much! Look forward to following you. Please keep up the good work!
My dear friend,
Thank you for inviting us once more into your world–this time with food. We have shared some wonderful meals, and I am grateful that you have chosen to share the story and book that has become such an intimate part of your personal narrative with us. I look forward to endless discussions about this project over a pot of tea and something sweet. See you soon, and I’m looking forward to the next segment of Zarah’s Paradise
Greetings from Brasil.Fowl with saffron tastes good!
those recipes look easy, except i dont have half the ingredients! i need some iranian friends to cook for me.
I’ll call up my Iranian friends. For sure! Thank you Amir. Where are we going to lead us. If it is for the truth i’ll come along. All those who love the truth will be meeting and gathering at the end.
This has been incredible so far. The artwork makes me envious.